The Italians know what happened. Their newspapers were full of this story.

They knew all about Ledeen, too.

Note, Burlesconi was wined and dined at the White House, in the early days after Bush crashed in with the help of his Da Da's SC friends. Several Wash. D.C. reporters I know were befuddled and confused. Why all this sudden attention showered on the Italian President?

Investigations followed. What happened????

One of the best investigative reporters for Vanity Fair, investigated the Niger Break In, and the fake document that resulted, straight back to Ledeen, Rove's buddy.

Ledeen was awarded with a big end office, full of windows, (several years after Bush was appointed) at the American Enterprise Institute, the organization that is full of Neocons, in fact, the official home of the Neocons, and the Project for a New American Century Letter.

Wilson blew their fake document about Saddam seekig Yellow Cake, all to hell, then they outed Valarie.

Rove, on Sunday, acted like wilson was a duntz, who wouldn't have known a thing about the Niger goings on. Wilson was ONLY the Ambassador to Niger for years, knew everyone there, and testimony in front of the Senate, by Valarie Wilson, under oath, her boss asked her if Joe would go. Rove, lied about that, too, on sunday...

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> So it should have come as no surprise that Newsweek reported that :

Ghorbanifar, a former Iranian spy who helped launch the Iran-contra affair, says one of the things he discussed with Defense officials Harold Rhode and Larry Franklin at meetings in Rome in December 2001 (and in Paris last June with only Rhode) was regime change in Iran....The Pentagon cut off contact with Ghorbanifar, whom the CIA years ago labeled as a
fabricator, after news about the talks broke last summer....But Ghorbanifar says he continued to communicate with Rhode, and sometimes Franklin, by phone and fax five or six times a week until shortly after the Paris meeting last summer (June 2002).

The important points to note in the Newsweek article were this:

1: The two Americans at the meeting were

a) Harold Rhode, a member of the Office of Special Plans, protege of Michael Ledeen and the liason between the administration and Ahmed Chalabi and
b) Larry Franklin, formerly of the Office of Special Plans, whom the FBI arrested for giving away secrets to Israel through the organization AIPAC.

What Newsweek doesn't tell us is that a third American was present at that first meeting and that he was the man who organized the meeting: Michael Ledeen.

But back to Ghorbanifar. A quick look in the Wikipedia shows us that:

Ghorbanifar's suspected duplicity during the Iran-Contra deal led CIA Director William Casey to order three separate lie-detector tests, all of which he failed. Iranian officials also suspected Ghorbanifar of passing them forged American documents. The CIA issued a "burn notice" (or "Fabricator Notice") on Ghorbanifar in 1984, meaning he was regarded as an unreliable source of intelligence. A 1987 congressional report on Iran-Contra cites the CIA warning that Ghorbanifar "should be regarded as an intelligence fabricator and a nuisance" who was known to spread false information to advance his own interests.

In case you missed it, let me repeat: Iranian officials also suspected Ghorbanifar of passing them forged American documents.

Our road now takes us from Paris to Genoa, to the doors of an organization known as Propaganda Due (P2).

On July 4, 2005 the news broke that the Genoan police had arrested two leaders of a Neo-Fascist, unofficial, self-proclaimed "anti-terrorist" network operating parallel to SISMI in Italy. The group recruited police and intelligence agents to their cause. Saya and Sindoca created the Department of Strategic Anti-Terrorism Studies (DSSA), which reportedly
had ties to the Bush administration as well as Isreal. One of the two leaders - Gaetano Saya - affirms he is a member of P-2 (Propaganda Due) on the DSSA website. A website which also

says:

The evil which has descended upon us finds in men like George Bush in America and Gaetano Saya in Italy an impregnable bulwark: God-fearing men, harded and pure individuals who, enlightend by God, have descended into the valley of the shadow of death to defend the Judeo-Christian faith and the West. The
righteousness which these men represent will defeat the anti-Christ. God is on their side.

The P-2 Lodge, a hotbed of fascism, reportedly maintained close links with Michael Ledeen. A number of SISMI agents and assets have been tied to the group, including Francesco Pazienza, a SISMI agent, and Rocco Martino.

In 1981, a raid on the home of Licio Gelli uncovered documents listing all the names of the members of P2.

Italy's current Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi was on that list.

The road then takes us to Milan.

The mounting evidence has caused prosecutors in Genoa and Milan to suspect that the neo-Fascist intelligence group may have been involved in the kidnaping of Imam Abu Omar (Moustapha Hassan Nasr) from a street in Milan in 2003.

Robert Seldon Lady was a Honduran-born CIA agent once in charge of a covert American unit in Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua tasked with infiltrating anti-American groups and turning them over. Italian authorities believe Lady was involved in the initial interrogation of Abu Omar in Egypt. Lady is also accused of trying to influence the investigation. Italian agents went to Lady's home with an arrest warrant. He had fled the country.

So, like Ghorbanifar, Lady seems to have followed the road from Iran-Contra to Italy.

The road that leads us now to Rome and the Niger Embassy.

Enter Rocco Martino. A known felon in Italy, he was an on again off again member of SISMI. At one point he had worked as a consultant for the division within Fort Braschi that was keeping track of weapons of mass destruction.

In early 2000, Rocco Martino, who, as I noted above, was tied to P-2, went back on the SISMI payroll. He was then directed by a SISMI agent to contact a SISMI source, a "lady" who worked at the Niger Embassy in Rome, could provide Martino with information in exchange for which Martino pays the Nigerien "lady" 500 euros/month.

On January 2nd, 2001, police discover that the Nigerien Embassy has been broken into and documents and files were stolen. Italian investigators now believe that the breakin is related to the Niger forgeries.

Then in October 2001, the following occured as described by Joshua Marshall :

You'll remember that most of the papers in the bundle of Niger-uranium documents that arrived at the US Embassy in Rome were actually authentic. It was only a subset of the documents --- those specifically related to the alleged Niger-Iraq transactions and a couple others --- that were bogus.

In late 2001, the SISMI officer[the one who put Martino in contact with the "lady"] brought the Niger Embassy employee a packet of documents --- those later identified as forgeries --- and instructed her to slip them in with the other documents she was providing to the `security consultant' [Rocco Martino] on an on-going basis. She mixed those documents in with authentic documents which she had access to in the course of her work at the embassy. She then passed those documents --- again, a mix of authentic and forged ones --- to the `security consultant'[Rocco Martino].

This was the story that was fed to Joshua Marshall. However, now that the light has been exposed upon the parallel clandestine organization operating within SISMI, an organization that Rocco Martino was a member of, one has to ask themselves if any "lady" from the Nigerien Embassy was ever involved.

If she ever really existed, why haven't investigators already discovered the identity of this "lady"? You'd think, at the least, there'd have been an internal investigation at the Nigerien Embassy to find out who was leaking documents. There couldn't have been that many Nigerien women working in the Embassy. It seems especially unlikely that SISMI doesn't know the identity of the "lady" since the Niger embassy in Rome has been a key listening post for Italian military intelligence since 1983 in addition to the fact it was a SISMI agent that

first sent Martino to the Nigerian Embassy.

Then again, the FBI hasn't questioned Martino either, even after they were informed he was coming to America .

And here's what one analyst said about the forged documents:

the thing that stood out immediately about the documents was that a companion document - a document included with the Niger documents that did not relate to uranium - mentioned some type of military campaign against major world powers. The members of the alleged military campaign included both Iraq and Iran, and was, according to the documents, being orchestrated through the Nigerien Embassy in Rome.

Iraq and Iran, allied, taking on the world in a plan orchestrated through the Nigerien Embassy in Rome?

Uhhh.

But it is important here to note the linkage being made by the fabricator of this forgery. This person wants to link Iran with Iraq. He wants us to believe that these two nations are a

threat. More on that later.

Here are the Nigerian forgeries .

So let's sum up what we know so far:

Rocco Martino, Michael Ledeen, Francesco Pazienza, Silvio Berlusconi and Nicolo Pollari are all members of P-2. P-2 is found out to have been running a parallel intelligence network that recruited SISMI agents. Pollari authorized the abduction of Abu Omar. The abduction was allegedly coordinated by Robert Lady. An unknown SISMI agent contacts Martino and puts him in touch with a "lady" who can get him documents about Niger. The Niger Embassy is broken into. The unknown SISMI agent gives the "lady" real Niger documents along with the forgeries. This "lady" gives them to Martino.

And now the road takes us to the office of Panorama.

Panorama is owned by Silvio Berlusconi.

Elisabetta Burba, a journalist for Panorama, receives a telephone call from Rocco Martoni telling her about the Niger documents, offering to sell them to here for ten thousand dollars. She meets with him and he gives her photocopies. She asks how they could be authenticated and he shows her a photocopy of the codebook from the Niger Embassy.

Italian authorities believe the codebook was obtained in the breakin of the Niger Embassy in 2001.

Burba shows the documents to her boss and requests to arrange a visit to Niger. Her boss, editor-in-chief Carlo Rossella, who is known to have ties with the Berlusconi government, insists that she first turn copies over to the U.S. Embassy,, which she did on October 9th. Burba's trip to Niger proved that the documents were fake and even that the companies allegedly

involved were too small to make a transaction of that size. Something the French would have known had they been behind the forgeries.

Martoni was never paid. The article was never published.

The New Yorker published an account of what happened next:

Two former C.I.A. officials provided slightly different accounts of what happened next. "The Embassy was alerted that the papers were coming," the first former official told me,
"and it passed them directly to Washington without even vetting them inside the Embassy." Once the documents were in Washington, they were forwarded by the C.I.A. to the Pentagon,

he said. "Everybody knew at every step of the way that they were false--until they got to the Pentagon, where they were believed."

Who would have alerted the Embassy that the papers were coming? The entire statement presupposes that the Embassy knew what papers were coming.

But now, the long and winding road leads us at last to Washington DC and the FBI investigation into the AIPAC spy ring. Here we find the usual suspects.

Keyser Soze aka Michael Ledeen.

Michael Ledeen was one of the founders of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA). He holds the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a think tank for AIPAC. He is co-founder of the Coalition for Democracy in Iran. As far back as 1980, the CIA allegedly listed Ledeen as an agent of influence of Israel. Ledeen is the main foreign policy advisor to Karl Rove. Ledeens main obsession seems to be to overthrow Iran.

In 1972 he published the book Universal Fascism, in which he expounds upon "the rightness of the fascist cause." In Universal Fascism, Ledeen first builds his case that fascism was the "20th Century Revolution" and that "people yearn for the real thing - revolution". It's the blueprint for a fascist revolution.

In 1980 he collaborated with Francesco Pazienza of SISMI and P-2 in the "BillyGate" affair. This is the same Pazienze who was recently found out to belong to the parallel intelligence agency in Italy. In 1985 Pazienza was found guilty of political manipulation, forgery, and the protection of terrorists. Ledeen is identified in court documents as an agent of SISMI.

The Pentagon downgraded Ledeen's security clearances from Top Secret-SCI to Secret in the mid-1980s, after the FBI began a probe of Ledeen for passing classified materials to a foreign
country, believed to be Israel.

In 2001, Ledeen was hired by Feith to work on contract for the Office of Special Plans.

It was Ledeen who got Israeli spy Jonathon Pollard his job in the Navy.

It was Ledeen who insisted on using Manucher Ghorbanifar, the Mossad double agent, in the Iran-Contra affair.

It was Ledeen who organized the meeting between Rhodes, Franklin and Ghorbanifar on Dec. 1, 2001 in Rome.

On Dec. 12, 2001, U.S. Amb. Sembler has a private dinner with Ledeen and the Italian Defense Minister Antonio Martino. Ledeen and Martino begin discussing the previous meeting with Ghorbanifar which they had both attended. Sembler, deeply concerned that a secret meeting had occured with the recipient of two CIA "burn notices", informed the CIA which in turn informed the White House, specifically Stephen Hadley. Hadley told Ledeen and Co. to back off of Ghorbanifar. But that order was ignored and communication between Ghorbanifar and Rhode continued up to their second face to face in June 2003.

Rhode also met with AIPAC lobbyists, Ahmed Chalabi, Israeli agents and SISMI during this time.

Harold Rhode.

Rhode is a member of the Office of Special Plans. He fervently pushes for the invasion of Iran. He's the main liason between the White House and Ahmed Chalabi. He is a 20 year Middle East expert. He has close ties to Michael Ledeen.

"According to one former senior U.S. intelligence official who maintained excellent contacts with serving U.S. intelligence

officials in the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, "Rhode practically lived out of (Ahmad) Chalab's office." This same source quoted the intelligence official with the CPA as saying, "Rhode was observed by CIA operatives as being constantly on his cell phone to Israel," and that the information that the intelligence officials overheard him passing to Israel was "mind-boggling," this source said. It dealt with U.S. plans, military deployments, political projects, discussion of Iraq assets, and a host of other sensitive topics, the former senior U.S. intelligence official said." FBI probes DOD office - (United Press International)

Larry Franklin.

Larry Franklin, a Col. in the US Air Force, is considered the Pentagons top Iran analyst. He attended the meeting in Rome with Ghorbanifar. He works for the Office of Special Plans and is a fervent believer in the need to invade Iran. He is now under arrest for allegedly giving state secrets to Isreal through AIPAC.

FBI investigators indicate that they are looking for more than one person. Michael Ledeen and Harold Rhode have to be considered primary suspects.

This flowchart shows how the Office of Special Plans was organized.

Note that many members are also affiliated with AEI and therefore, by extension, with AIPAC. Their names are Wurmser, Rubin, Cheney, Perle and Gingrich. That's in addition, of course, to Keyser Soze, er Michael Ledeen.

One need only look at what espionage operation risked being exposed by Wilson revealing the Niger Yellowcake forgeries to realize why Rove would go so far as to 'out' Valerie Plame to discredit Joe Wilson.

Which takes us down the road to the desk of Bob Novak.

Bob Novaks greatest harm to national security didn't come from outing Valerie Plame and her front company. His greatest harm came when he made the following statement in his July 14, 2003 article:

Wilson's mission was created after an early 2002 report by the Italian intelligence service about attempted uranium purchases from Niger, derived from forged documents prepared by what the CIA calls a "con man." This misinformation, peddled by Italian journalists, spread through the U.S. government. The White House, State Department and Pentagon, and not just Vice President Dick Cheney, asked the CIA to look into it.

Up until that time, the name of the country involved was classified. Check out EmptyWheels great diary.

How could Novak have known SISMI was involved? Either someone with clearance told him, or a conspirator to the forgeries told him.

Who would those conspirators be? Those with links to P-2 and the parallel Italian intelligence network. I think I've pretty much spelled out who's on that list.

So did Manucher Ghorbanifar make the forgeries? Or was it Francesco Pazienza? The signs along the road would point to Ghorbanifar. Remember that the second forgery had the outlandish claim that Iraq and Iran were planning to take on the worlds major powers? Ghorbanifars self interest is the "liberation" of Iran. Isreal wants Iraq and Iran invaded. So does Ledeen, he's done nothing but rant about just that for years. So does Rhodes. So does Franklin. The invasion of Iran is already being planned by the White House.

No, Pazienza was most likely the SISMI agent that put Martino in touch with the "lady" who in turn passed Ghorbanifars forgeries along with the stolen Niger documents onto him.

So why hasn't the FBI questioned Rocco Martoni or the alleged "lady" at the Niger Embassy?

The answers to those questions probably lie somewhere down the road with the trial of Larry Franklin and the investigation into Valerie Plame.

We can only hope.

(UPDATE): It seems from this article that Fitzgerald has turned his attention directly to the Niger Forgeries themselves!

Even as the FBI was following the trail of the forgers, the Italians were looking into the matter from their end. A parliamentary committee was charged with investigating, and they issued a heavily redacted report: now, I am told by a former CIA operations officer, the report has aroused some interest on this side of the Atlantic. According to a source in the Italian embassy, Patrick J. "Bulldog" Fitzgerald asked for and "has finally been given a full copy of the Italian parliamentary oversight report on the forged Niger uranium document," the former CIA officer tells me:

"Previous versions of the report were redacted and had all the names removed, though it was possible to guess who was involved. This version names Michael Ledeen as the conduit for the report and indicates that former CIA officers Duane Clarridge and Alan Wolf were the principal forgers. All three had business interests with Chalabi."

And there's more:

my source tells me that "Fitzgerald asked the Italians if he could share the report with Paul McNulty," the prosecutor in the AIPAC case.

At last! We have linkage betweent the AIPAC case and the Niger Forgeries and the trail is leading us straight to Michael Ledeen and the AEI group. This is major folks! As the article says at the end:

Before Fitzgerald is done, we'll see the warlords of Washington hauled before a court of the people. We'll hear the whole sordid story of how a band of exiles, at least two foreign intelligence agencies, and a cabal of neoconservatives inside the Pentagon and the vice president's office bamboozled Congress and the American people into going to war. As the indictments come down, so will the elaborate narrative so carefully constructed by the War Party in the run-up to war be exposed as a tissue of fabrication, forgery, and fraud.
[NEW UPDATE]: I found this out about Clarridge
During the 1980s, the State Department housed a public diplomacy office on Central America that reported to the National Security Council and was later found by a Congressional investigative body to have engaged in "prohibited, covert propaganda" operations when it, among other things, authored articles purportedly written by leaders of the Nicaraguan contras for publication in US newspapers. Several high-ranking members of the Bush administration contributed to that effort, including Otto Reich, who headed the office and is now assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, and Elliott Abrams, who was assistant secretary then and is now a top National Security Council aide to Bush. A third, Duane "Dewey" Clarridge, was to be named as Downey's deputy at the White House anti-terrorist office but apparently fell victim to strenuous protests from Congressional Democrats who recalled that he and Abrams had pleaded guilty to lying to Congress in the Iran-contra affair, only to be pardoned by then-president George Bush Sr.
Clarridge was in charge of the contras war effort. His initial base of operations? Honduras, home of Robert Seldon Lady.
</div></div>